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A Hinds County judge has reassigned the criminal case of retired Mississippi welfare director John Davis to a special judge who happens to be Davis’ former colleague, according to a court order posted Tuesday.

The new judge, former Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Jess Dickinson, ran the Mississippi Department of Child Protection Services while Davis served as director of the Mississippi Department of Human Services.

The two agencies that Dickinson and Davis ran interacted closely; the offices used to be one in the same until the Legislature separated CPS into its own department in 2016. But CPS still gets funding from the welfare agency.

In fact, Child Protection Services, which oversees the state’s foster care system, relies on MDHS sharing a portion of its Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant to satisfy its budget each year.

TANF is the federal welfare fund Davis allegedly defrauded.

The connection between Davis and Dickinson raises questions about a possible conflict of interest. But because of a gag order in the case, the parties will not say what prompted the reassignment or the likeliness that Dickinson will reassign the case again.

The Mississippi Supreme Court appointed several special judges, including Dickinson, in 2020 to help Hinds County clear its backlog of cases, which is how Dickinson wound up presiding over his contemporary’s case.

Reached Tuesday evening, Dickinson told Mississippi Today he had not yet learned that Davis’ case had been assigned to him within a batch of cases Hinds County is transferring to him.

The State Auditor’s Office has accused Davis of perpetuating a scheme that funneled $70 million in federal funds away from the needy between 2016 and 2020. Prosecutors charged Davis criminally for just a fraction of the misspending. They say he allegedly defrauded the state by paying his close associate, former pro-wrestler Brett DiBiase, for work he didn’t conduct and conspiring with nonprofit founder Nancy New to use embezzled welfare funds to send DiBiase to rehab.

From 2016 to 2019, Davis’ department transferred $42.5 million of its TANF funding to child welfare services, according to figures it reported to the federal government.

Then-Gov. Phil Bryant appointed Davis as welfare director in January of 2016 and Dickenson as the head of CPS in September of 2017.

During Dickinson’s tenure, his agency was plagued by budget shortfalls and threats of takeover from the federal government. CPS failed, year after year, to comply with the terms of a court settlement in a long-running federal lawsuit. The 2004 complaint accused Mississippi of failing to protect children in its custody. The plaintiffs maintain that foster children continue to be abused and neglected as recently as 2019, according to media reports.

The fact that Mississippi could have used the money Davis’ agency and its contractors allegedly wasted to strengthen supports for families and reduce neglect inextricably links the welfare scandal to the condition of the foster care system in Mississippi.

Most of the alleged misspending — such as a million-dollar promotional gig for Brett Favre, a new $5 million volleyball stadium, $2 million in personal investments in a pharmaceutical startup, a horse ranch for Marcus Dupree, and more — occurred within a program called Families First for Mississippi.

Families First was highly publicized as the programmatic arm of a judicial initiative, called Family First, which was supposed to prevent kids from being taken from their homes. But for tens of millions of dollars, it delivered very little.

Davis announced his retirement in July of 2019, just a couple weeks after a few of his employees took a tip about agency misspending to Gov. Bryant, who relayed the information to another one of his appointees, State Auditor Shad White. Dickinson retired in January of 2020 at the end of Bryant’s administration. The next month, agents arrested Davis and three months later, the auditor released a report questioning $94 million of his agency’s purchases, mostly from the TANF fund.

While Davis allegedly conspired in what officials are calling the largest public embezzlement scheme in state history, Dickinson struggled to keep operations afloat at an already cash-strapped agency with a dwindling budget.

Now, Dickinson could have a great impact on what happens to Davis.

Senior Hinds County Circuit Court Judge Tomie Green signed the order that placed Dickinson over the case. It contains all of one sentence.

The case is reassigned to Dickinson, the order signed Jan. 31 reads, “on the basis of Mississippi Supreme Court’s Orders providing relief to the 7th Circuit Court District due to backlog created during the Coronavirus pursuant under 2021-22 Cares Act.”

The original judge in the case, Hinds County Circuit Court Judge Adrienne Wooten, most recently moved the trial to March 8, a full two years after his February 2020 arrest. But counsel for Davis and state prosecutors both requested another continuance on Jan. 28.

An administrative assistant for Wooten said she could not provide a reason for the reassignment. The district attorney’s office declined to comment. Judge Green and Davis’ attorney Merrida Coxwell did not return Mississippi Today’s calls Tuesday.

Prosecutors, attorneys for Davis and the auditor’s office have previously cited a gag order in the case as preventing them from answering questions from the press.

A new indictment filed in January against Nancy New, who partially ran Families First, alleges that the four $40,000 payments her nonprofit made to the luxury rehab facility in Malibu where DiBiase was receiving treatment were actually bribes for Davis. Prosecutors allege the $160,000 extinguished debt Davis had, and in exchange, he agreed to extend the New nonprofit’s TANF grant. The accusation suggests Davis personally benefitted from New helping DiBiase, a new theory in the case.

Davis has not been charged with bribery.

The post New judge in John Davis’ welfare embezzlement case is his former colleague appeared first on Mississippi Today.

House leaders passed legislation Tuesday that would restore a ballot initiative process, which allows citizens to bypass the Legislature and place issues on the ballot.

The constitutional resolution passed 92-26 (needing 78 to pass), and now goes to the Senate. Once the resolution passes both chambers in the same form, it will go to voters to ratify in the November 2022 general election.

The effort is needed because the Mississippi Supreme Court in May 2021 struck down the initiative process that had been in effect since the early 1990s.

The proposal passed Tuesday is different than the one that existed before May 2021. This proposal would allow voters to place issues on the ballot to change or amend general law. The initiative adopted in the early 1990s and that was struck down by the Supreme Court last year allowed voters to amend the state Constitution.

Under the new proposal, the Legislature would not be able change general law for two years after voters approved it unless for an emergency, and even then it would take a two-thirds vote of each legislative chamber to do so.

READ MORE: House committee makes first move to restore ballot initiative process

House Constitution Chair Fred Shanks and various other legislative leaders said they would prefer the process be used to amend general law because it is more difficult to change the Constitution. Changing the Constitution requires the approval of voters.

House members voting against the resolution Tuesday were primarily Democrats who support the initiative process, but opposed for various reasons the form of initiative offered by the House leadership.

Rep. Robert Johnson, D-Natchez, offered an amendment that would give voters the right to appeal to the Supreme Court to try to block any change to the initiative in the first two years. The amendment failed, but Shanks said he might work with Johnson to add later in the process some form of an appeal of changes in the first two years.

The reason the legislation is being taken up because in a controversial May 2021 ruling, the state Supreme Court ruled the process invalid because language in the Constitution mandated the required number of signatures be gathered equally from five congressional districts. The state has only four congressional districts, losing one as a result of the 2000 Census.

READ MORE: Mississippi Supreme Court overturns medical marijuana program and ballot initiative process

The proposal that passed the House this week would require a pro rata share of signatures be gathered from whatever number of congressional districts the state has.

READ MORE: Will lawmakers be willing to give up some of their power by restoring ballot initiative?

The post House votes to restore a version of Mississippi ballot initiative process appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The Senate on Tuesday passed a bill that would give lawmakers a pay bump of $6,000 for the first year of a four-year term, and $4,500 a year for the other three years of the term.

Mississippi’s part-time legislators are paid a base of $23,500 a year — although most make between $40,000 and $50,000 a year in salary, per diem, reimbursements and other payments. Some lawmakers’ total compensation is around $70,000 a year.

The $23,500 includes a base salary of $10,000 a year, plus $1,500 a month for office expenses during months when the legislature is not in session — despite the fact that most lawmakers have other jobs and don’t have separate legislative offices in their district. Many rely on Capitol staffers to help with administrative work year-round.

Lawmakers do not receive the $1,500 a month office payment when the Legislature is in session. Typically, the first year of a term the Legislature meets four months, then three months each of the following three years.

Senate Bill 2794 would pay lawmakers the $1,500 in months when the Legislature is in session.

Lawmakers also receive about $150 per diem — living expenses — for each day they spend in Jackson (including those who live in or near it), and mileage reimbursement set at the federal government rate, currently about 58 cents a mile. All members are allowed at least four days a month at the Capitol, with chairmen allowed six days and vice chairmen five days. Extra days must be approved.

The Senate bill, which now heads to the House for consideration, was passed on a “morning roll call vote,” with only a few senators saying they wanted to be counted as a no vote.

The post Mississippi lawmakers propose more pay for themselves appeared first on Mississippi Today.

State Rep. Robert Johnson of Natchez says he can remember his parents “having him on the picket line when he was 10 years old” in Adams County because a local store would not employee Black cashiers.

But he said the same parents developed relationships with white power brokers in Adams County: a banker who helped his father obtain a needed loan for his business, and a real estate agent who helped his father purchase land along the Mississippi River that powerful white residents didn’t want an African American to own. His mother, Johnson said, developed relationships with white school administrators that advanced her career.

Johnson, the Democratic leader in the Mississippi House of Representatives, applies those values at the Capitol, where Republicans can pass any bill without a single Democratic vote. Even outside the Capitol, Mississippi Democrats wield little political influence and have struggled to organize and fight against a growing Republican landscape.

Often, Johnson said, he tries to balance his party’s platforms and stances on issues with his pragmatism about where the power really lies.

“I know we have possibilities in this state to do things we have not done,” Johnson said Monday during a lunch meeting of the Mississippi State University Stennis Institute of Government/Capitol Press Corps.

“I continue to work that way,” Johnson said. “I don’t do it because I am a Democrat. I don’t do it because I am a Black person. I do it because (Mississippi) is where I want to be … I hope it is the beginning of what I think are progressive ways to get things done around the state, to continue to work together to get things done.”

Johnson has earned respect among many lawmakers — and sometimes criticism from his fellow Democrats — for often working with House Speaker Philip Gunn and other Republican House leaders. He said even though he disagrees with Gunn on many issues, he considers him a friend.

READ MORE: Robert Johnson became a key ally of last Democratic speaker after voting against him

He pointed to Gunn’s massive tax restructuring plan as an example of where he has tried to work with Gunn. He and most House Democrats voted in January for Gunn’s proposal to phase out the income tax and increase the sales tax while reducing the tax on food and on car tags.

“Income tax, getting rid of income tax long-term, it doesn’t make much sense at all. But short-term, it gives me an opportunity to be in the room with Philip Gunn when we’ve got $1.8 billion (in federal COVID-19 relief funds) to spend, $1 billion in surplus funds, figuring out what we can do for people all over the state,” Johnson said.

He added, “As we move this state forward, we need to try to find places we can agree.”

Johnson questioned whether the Republican majority can ultimately agree on a plan to eliminate the income tax because of disagreements in how to undertake such a massive endeavor.

“I am betting they butt heads and nobody passes anything,” Johnson predicted, but added that at least Gunn’s plan cuts the state’s grocery tax and reduces by 50% the cost of car tags — both proposals that he said would benefit poor and working people.

Still, Johnson said he often becomes frustrated by what he says is a lack of progress in Mississippi. He believes state leaders are missing opportunities to help the state, such as not expanding Medicaid to provide health insurance for primarily the working poor. He said eliminating the income tax would not convince young, successful people to stay or move to the state. He said fixing the state’s infrastructure and addressing crime issues, especially in the city of Jackson, would be a much more effective ways to grow the state’s population.

“Jackson, the capital city, is the front door to the state of Mississippi,” Johnson said.

He said expanding Medicaid and fixing infrastructure could be done with existing funds, including $1.8 billion in federal funds, and go a long way toward addressing the problems in the state.

Still, even as he tries to work across the aisle to get things done, the frustrations mount. He said just about each week of the legislative session, he asks himself, “What the f— are we doing here in the state of Mississippi?”

PODCAST: Rep. Robert Johnson discusses key issues ahead of 2022 legislative session

The post Why Rep. Robert Johnson, a top Democratic leader, often works with Republicans appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The post Marshall Ramsey: Assistance appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Mississippi lawmakers are considering getting into the venture capital business, using your tax dollars to float startup businesses.

What could go wrong?

Well, if history is any guide — plenty. The last time the state tried this, millions of dollars were misspent and stolen, no new businesses got started, somebody went to prison, and the state spent years trying to untangle what went wrong.

Taxpayers would’ve been better off if someone had taken their money down to the boats and played craps with it.

First, the new proposal: With the American Rescue Plan Act, Congress earmarked $10 billion to reauthorize the State Small Business Credit Initiative. This initiative was first created in 2010 after the Great Recession, and funded with $1.5 billion in federal tax dollars to help stimulate small business entrepreneurship through loans and investments.

FOLLOW THE MONEY: Our full tracking of Mississippi’s historic influx of federal cash

Mississippi got about $13 million back then and, like many other states, just created small business loan programs. Some states also used the money for venture capital, but Mississippi did not in part because it was a relatively small amount and also in part because of its past massive boondoggle mentioned above — but more on that later.

Now, Mississippi is set to receive about $52 million. And the Mississippi Development Authority is asking lawmakers to give the agency authority to stand up a private nonprofit and create a venture capital fund with part of the money. It’s asking for this authority because, as MDA’s Chief Operating Officer Jamie Miller explained to lawmakers, “the state constitution does not allow the state to have an equity interest in a private businesses.”

The plan would be for the new nonprofit venture to get some private venture capitalists to also pitch in, find the next Google or Amazon being cooked up in someone’s garage in Toomsuba, give it money to get rolling and bingo — we’re in the money.

Now, for the history: With business leaders long lamenting the lack of venture capital floating around Mississippi, lawmakers in 1994 decided to help out, under the auspices of MDA’s predecessor agency. They approved $20 million in borrowing, and the creation of a private nonprofit to funnel the borrowed tax dollars to Magnolia Venture Capital Corporation.

But by 1997, Magnolia Venture had blown about $4.5 million on overhead including what an investigation would deem “questionable and extravagant” spending by its CEO and board. The CEO — later convicted of fraud and money laundering — had paid himself $747,000 in salary and bonuses over 18 months, and awarded companies he owned or was affiliated with $1.2 million.

Magnolia did not help a single startup get started up, and its only capital investment was $600,000 to an already existing company. The lone private investor Magnolia suckered in promptly pulled out, and the state was left holding the bag on millions of dollars in interest payments.

When the latest proposal for MDA to stand up a venture capital (also known as “risk” capital, for good reason) got pitched at the Capitol, many folks who’d been around more than a minute immediately thought of Magnolia Venture.

But MDA Interim Director Laura Hipp said these are different times, and the ARPA funds would be subject to both federal and state scrutiny light years beyond that of the mid-1990s. A new program would require the federal venture dollars be matched with private investment (but the Magnolia Venture scheme ostensibly did, too) and MDA would closely monitor the workings of the new venture capital venture.

The proposal was offered in two “mirror” bills, Senate Bill 2772 and House Bill 1164. The House version was passed on to the full chamber by the Ways and Means committee last week with little discussion and no debate. But in the Senate, after much debate and some reminiscing about Magnolia Venture, the Finance Committee stripped out the venture capital/private nonprofit language before sending it to the full Senate.

The Senate debate over the bill created somewhat strange bedfellows. Both Sen. David Blount, D-Jackson, and Sen. Chris McDaniel, R-Ellisville — often at odds politically — decried the venture capital proposal as a bad idea.

Both shared the sentiment that the state “should not be in the business of picking winners and losers” by handing out tax dollars to fund speculative startup businesses.

Blount reminded his colleagues of Magnolia Venture, “a giant scandal that resulted in millions of dollars squandered.”

“The state has enough to do without getting into the venture capital business,” Blount said. “We ended up with a scandal before … Who would run this nonprofit? Would their salaries be public information, their records? Would they be subject to open meetings laws? Bid laws? … Are you familiar with Magnolia Venture Capital? Why should we do that again?”

McDaniel said such a program would “invite not only unfair competition, but corruption and cronyism.”

“I would never mean to imply anything improper or irregular is happening at MDA,” McDaniel said, “but if you look at history, any time government gets involved in private business affairs like this, you end up with misspending, strong arming, cronyism and corruption … Government creating an environment for growth, that’s one thing, and that usually means government getting out of the way, not risking the taxpayers’ capital.”

McDaniel said that, beyond the venture capital proposal, he has concerns over other parts of MDA’s plans to use the ARPA money earmarked for small business growth.

“My understanding is that some of the businesses could receive loan forgiveness up to 60% of the loans with this program,” McDaniel said. “We would be incentivizing reckless decisions and investing by businesses, with the damage falling back on the taxpayers. A loan with up to 60% forgiveness is probably a self-fulfilling prophecy.”

Blount said: “Venture capital is by definition making risky investments. That’s not our job.”

The post Mississippi wants to dole out tax dollars as venture capital to startups. What could go wrong? appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The post Marshall Ramsey: Politics 101 appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Francis De La Rosa of Brandon went into labor with her twins at 26 weeks pregnant in July 2021. Her son and daughter were born weighing about two pounds each, and they were immediately whisked away to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Merit Health River Oaks Hospital. 

De La Rosa has worked at Mothers’ Milk Bank of Mississippi since 2017. She started off as a lab technician working to process donated breast milk for premature babies in the NICU and then rose through the ranks to executive director. 

She knew the importance of breast milk for premature babies, but after her twins were born, she experienced it firsthand. For about three days before her supply came in, her babies received donor milk.

“I went from being part of the organization that helps provide donor milk to the NICU mom who was needing donor milk for her babies while she worked on her supply,” De La Rosa described in a post on the bank’s Facebook page. 

De La Rosa’s daughter, Emmalee, tragically passed away eight days after she was born. Her twin Luka spent more than two months in the NICU, and he is now seven months old.

De La Rosa said she is “so grateful that this organization exists — that it was able to provide my babies nutrition and fill the gap until I was able to take over.”

But from 2020 to 2021, there was a 30% decline in donations to the Mothers’ Milk Bank, the only bank accredited by the Human Milk Banking Association of North America (HMBANA) in the state. As a result, it can’t fill some orders for hospitals, said De La Rosa and Dr. Rebecca Saenz, the medical director of the bank.

That’s a problem for a state like Mississippi, where one of every seven babies born in 2019 in Mississippi were preterm, or born before the mother reached 37 weeks of pregnancy, according to the March of Dimes.

The state ranks 50th in not only preterm birth but also infant mortality, child mortality, low birthweight and neonatal mortality, or death within the first 28 days of being born, according to America’s Health Rankings. 

Breast milk can be life-saving for premature, low birth-weight and otherwise vulnerable babies.

“These babies in neonatal intensive care units rely on breast milk to help lower the risk of severe intestinal infections called NEC, necrotizing enterocolitis,” said Dr. Anita Henderson, president of the Mississippi chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics and a member of the board of directors for the bank.

“Many moms are able to pump and give their babies in the NICU their own breast milk. Some mothers are unable or unwilling to do so and their babies are given donated, pasteurized breast milk which helps keep them healthy and protect their intestines,” she continued.

Note: Story continues under gallery.

The decline in donated milk is not unique to Mississippi. 

“In efforts to meet the increasing demand for donor milk, coupled with a decline in milk donations, the (HMBANA) and its member milk banks across the United States and Canada are urging healthy, lactating people to consider donating to their local milk bank today,” a January release from HMBANA stated. “Doing so is essential to maintaining the stability of the donor milk supply, which ensures life-saving medical treatments for high-risk infants.”

Myrelle Penquite of Brandon delivered her now eight-month-old daughter Matilyn at 28 weeks pregnant. Matilyn would go on to spend over three months in the NICU, including a stint at Children’s of Mississippi for a heart procedure. 

Matilyn, like De La Rosa’s twins, received donor milk the first few days before Penquite’s milk supply came in.

But as the weeks and months passed, Penquite began producing more milk than the hospital could use for Matilyn — a surprisingly emotional development. 

“As a NICU parent, you almost feel hopeless because there’s not really much you can do for your baby. You can’t hold them when you want to, you can’t comfort them, there are limitations on what you can actually do,” she said. “So one of the biggest things was I knew I was taking care of her when I was pumping (breast milk).” 

As her freezer began filling up with pumped milk, a nurse told her about the Mothers’ Milk Bank of Mississippi, where she went on to donate nearly 1,000 ounces of breast milk.

“I wanted to donate to help a family like another mom helped my baby,” Penquite said. “The process was very easy — a lot easier than I thought it would be.” 

Donating to Mississippi Mothers’ Milk Bank requires completion of a questionnaire screening and bloodwork to ensure eligibility. Employees at the bank contact both the mother’s and baby’s doctors to ensure they are both healthy and safe. 

Breastfeeding is beneficial for both babies and mothers, said Saenz. It’s associated with more robust immune systems in children and a lower risk of heart and other diseases as adults. It is also associated with a reduced rate of breast and ovarian cancer for women. 

Those who are interested in becoming donors can call the Mothers’ Milk Bank of Mississippi at (601) 939-5504 or visit the site. The bank is hosting a milk drive Friday from 9:30 a.m.-3 p.m, and staff encourages potential donors to call ahead for the pre-screening. Donors will receive a T-shirt, water bottle and refreshments.

The post Mississippi is in need of donor breast milk, which can save the lives of vulnerable babies appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The Mississippi Ethics Commission dismissed a complaint alleging the Legislature’s Joint Redistricting Committee violated the state’s open meetings law in developing a plan to redraw the four U.S. House seats.

The eight-member Ethics Commission, which is responsible for hearing allegations of public officials violating the open meetings law, said there was no violation because the Redistricting Committee never met behind closed doors with a quorum present, according to affidavits from Rep. Jim Beckett, R-Bruce, the chair of the committee, and from vice chair Sen. Dean Kirby, R-Pearl.

“A meeting is an assemblage of members of a public body at which official acts may be taken upon a matter over which the public body has supervision, control, jurisdiction or advisory power,” the commission wrote in its opinion dismissing the complaint. “Official acts, including deliberations, may only be taken when a quorum of the public body assembles.”

For the committee to have a quorum, which is needed to conduct official business, six House members and six Senate members must be present.

READ MORE: Groups allege Redistricting Committee violated public meetings law

The ACLU complaint alleged, “The extent of the redistricting work that the Committee has performed thus far makes it apparent that the Committee has performed public business in private. In fact, following its November public meeting, Chairman Jim Beckett invited the Committee’s members to his office to view the U.S. congressional map that would be, and was, offered, voted on and adopted by the Committee.”

But Beckett and Kirby told the Ethics Commission there never was a quorum present during any closed door meeting.

The Ethics Commission said the ACLU contended that a quorum does not have to be present for there to be a violation of Mississippi’s open meetings law.

“That contention is incorrect,” the commission ruled, based on past state Supreme Court rulings.

The ACLU has the right to appeal the Ethics Commission ruling to a state court.

It already is likely that the NAACP and others will challenge the congressional redistricting plan in federal court. The new map was approved by the Redistricting Committee late last year and ultimately passed by the Legislature in January.

READ MORE: Mississippi NAACP questions constitutionality of redistricting plan

The NAACP told a federal judge last week there were issues with the plan, including the large geographic size of the Black-majority district in the plan. NAACP attorneys said the large district makes it more difficult to elect an African American U.S. House member.

Federal law, most agree, mandates that Mississippi have an African American majority U.S. House district because of the large African American population in the state, which is about 38%.

The state is supposed to redraw the congressional districts every 10 years to adhere to population shifts found by the decennial census. The Legislature also is in the process of redrawing the 174 state House and Senate seats.

The post Ethics Commission rules that open meetings law was not violated in redistricting effort appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Note: This analysis first published in Mississippi Today’s weekly legislative newsletter. Subscribe to our free newsletter for exclusive early access to weekly analyses.

Philip Gunn’s biggest political legacy is on the line.

The third-term speaker of the House, a white Republican, has been credited by numerous Black leaders with ushering through the Capitol one of the most tangible racial progressions in Mississippi history: changing the state flag, the last in the nation containing the Confederate battle emblem.

It was a difficult challenge for Gunn to navigate in America’s Blackest state with a violent history of racism, but where white conservatives have historically dominated the political system.

Why would a white Mississippi Republican with aspirations of higher office ignore the pleas of so many white voters who wanted to keep flying that old flag? Because he knew Black Mississippians — and the state of Mississippi’s image — were hurting. That understanding, he said, was rooted in his Christian faith values.

Today, more than 18 months later, Gunn faces another political challenge, one with a similar mix of racial politics and dug-in heels: Legislative Republicans, inspired by out-of-state conservative media figures who know nothing about Mississippi, are trying to ban the teaching of critical race theory in the state’s public schools and universities.

The only bill alive that addresses critical race theory was passed in January by the Senate and is now pending in the House, where Gunn has virtually complete control of what legislation lives or dies. House leaders, if they want to keep it alive, have until March 1 to pass it out of committee. If they don’t act by then, the bill will die.

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Critical race theory became a flashpoint of national politics in 2021 as conservative pundits latched onto the term and sowed fear about its so-called hold on generations of young Americans. That rhetoric, predictably, reached the Magnolia State and has been broadcast by powerful Republicans.

Gunn has been one of Mississippi’s loudest critics of critical race theory. In a July 2021 speech, he echoed some of the same disproven talking points that national pundits have shared.

“We know the devastating effects that racism can have on a society. We in Mississippi know firsthand how that can be, what the devastating effects will be,” Gunn said. “That’s exactly why we must fight against this attempt to reintroduce racism back into our schools and undo all the progress that we’ve made.”

Sen. Mike McLendon, the sponsor of the Mississippi bill, admitted he was inspired to push the bill by what he and constituents heard on Fox News. Meanwhile, the Mississippi Department of Education has continually insisted that the theory is not being taught in the state’s public kindergarten through 12th grade schools.

The fallout from the Senate’s passing of the bill in January was dramatic and harmful to Mississippi’s image. For the first known time in the state’s history, every Black member of the Senate walked off the floor as the final vote was being tallied. The walkout — a tried-and-true strategy of the civil rights movement — captured the attention of the world, and the white lawmakers who voted to pass the bill ensured that Mississippi was once again painted in a negative racial light.

READ MORE: How Black senators controlled the narrative on a historic day at the Capitol

Gunn, if he’s listening, should know there’s similarly a low appetite for the bill among his Black House colleagues. State Rep. Robert Johnson, the House Democratic leader who has maintained a close relationship with Gunn, did not mince words about what he thought of the GOP-led push.

“They’re spending so much time trying to ban something that’s not even being taught,” Johnson said in a radio interview in late January. “Meanwhile, people in our districts still have roads they can’t get back and forth on. The unemployment rate is still in the double digits in many parts of the state. We’ve got a medical crisis in this state, people’s hospitals are closed or about to close. We have an enormous wage disparity. We have a serious poverty issue in this state, and infrastructure problems in this state.”

“It’s an issue that’s been created and perpetuated by Republicans to have something to fight or argue and not have to deal with real problems,” Johnson said.

And it’s not just Black Democrats who are opposing the bill.

Last week, Mississippi Today reported that just one state educational institution, the University of Mississippi School of Law (coincidentally where Gunn received his law degree) teaches a critical race theory course. And, according to students currently taking the course, it’s nothing like what it’s being made out to be by Mississippi Republicans and the national media.

Take it from Brittany Murphree, a Republican and second-year law student currently taking the course. Murphree didn’t know what to expect when she enrolled in the class, but after just two weeks she wrote Gunn’s House colleagues a letter, begging them to stop pushing the Senate bill.

“To date, this course has been the most impactful and enlightening course I have taken throughout my entire undergraduate career and graduate education at the State of Mississippi’s flagship university,” Murphree wrote. “… I believe our leaders need to show greater integrity in every vote he or she may cast on a bill or resolution — especially when that vote affects the histories and cultural identities of a vast number of your constituents.”

Murphree continued: “I believe this bill not only undermines the values of the hospitality state but declares that Mississippians are structured in hate and rooted in a great deal of ignorance.”

READ MORE: Inside Mississippi’s only class on critical race theory

Black lawmakers are saying it, and a white Republican enrolled in the state’s only critical race theory course is saying it: Passing a bill to ban the teaching of critical race theory is unnecessary. It can only stand to show Black Mississippians that white leaders aren’t interested in passing policies designed to move the state forward. And it will certainly be another hit to the state’s international reputation.

What Gunn decides on the bill could erase the credit for racial progress he earned during the flag change. It doesn’t have to be that way. He could direct Rep. Richard Bennett, the House Education chairman, to let the Senate bill die on the calendar on March 1. In doing so, he could mitigate the heartache this bill would cause so many Mississippians, and he could further protect the state’s international image — just like he did with the flag effort.

It’s notable that the House didn’t bring forward their own critical race theory bill before the committee deadline. That could be a sign that Gunn and House leaders are content with letting the Senate bill be the state’s standard. It could also mean that they saw the backlash after what happened in the Senate and don’t want to further harm the state’s image or relationships with Black lawmakers.

But there is certainly a different political read that could Gunn could make. If he were to run for statewide office — like governor, as he is reportedly considering — how would killing this bill play with white conservative voters? Would they think he backed down after promising to address critical race theory, or will this issue be a distant memory by 2023 similar to other political fads like the “migrant caravan” pushed by Republicans ahead of the 2018 midterms?

Credit for his efforts to change the flag could wane if he, 18 months later, pushes policy that jeopardizes the teaching of the racism that the old flag symbolized. He can’t center Christianity as the fundamental principle of his political calculus and expect grace from many Mississippians who watch him hand waving it off when it comes to critical race theory. Politically, the speaker will not be able to have it both ways.

Murphree, a potential future Republican voter of Gunn’s in a statewide election, would perhaps put it to the speaker the same way she put it to his House colleagues in the letter she wrote:

“Please vote with integrity, and not with fear of your constituents or fellow party members.”

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